Mammography has earned great deal of significance, as it's a method for detecting signs of breast cancer. In a conventional mammography view, two views are obtained for each breast namely a craniocaudal (CC) view obtained by positioning the X-ray film horizontally under the compressed breast, and a medio-lateral oblique (MLO) view obtained by positioning X-ray film orthogonally to left-right axis. Thus for both the breasts together there are four view taken, typically named as LCC (Left craniocaudal), RCC (Right craniocaudal), LMLO (Left medio-lateral oblique) and RMLO (Right medio-lateral oblique). For an appropriate review of the images, it is essential to know the type of view and laterality of the breasts.
To assist in review process, the type of view and the laterality is mentioned in a particular format in the images. Conventionally an operator manually enters the laterality to the mammography system or to the processing circuitry associated with the system. The system incorporates this information to the images after the imaging is done. Since there is no mechanism to check whether the operator has entered the data correctly, it is desired to have a mechanism to ensure that the operator has entered the correct laterality, or a method to automatically determine the laterality of the breasts without human intervention.
There exist some algorithmic solutions that detect breast laterality from the image. The laterality is verified after the imaging. Also some of the existing solutions suggest a method to correct the laterality at a later stage, if the operator realizes his mistake later. Thus it will be beneficial to have a simple, economical solution to automatically identify the laterality before imaging or while imaging the patient.
Also some times due to patient's medical condition or due to some other reason, the patient may not be able to stand in front of the scanner for imaging. It will be difficult to identify the laterality of the breasts in the recumbent position.
Thus there exists a need to provide a method and system for automatically detecting the breast laterality in a mammography imaging procedure even while the patient is in the recumbent position.